This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Contact: AtlanticYardsReport[at]hotmail.com

Brooklyn seems ready to adopt the Nets. It may be a while before the Nets adopt Brooklyn.

Of course the "ready to adopt" is evidenced, in the main, by the team's extensive advertising campaign--and the Times's promotion, in two articles covering at least 1.6 pages today (and nearly 3 pages a few weeks back).

Because the Nets will practice in New Jersey for two years--they're looking for a site in Red Hook--the players are mainly living in New Jersey or Manhattan. Howard Beck writes:

The team is making plans to ease the commuting strain. The Nets will provide hotel rooms in Brooklyn on game days, allowing them to hold a morning shootaround at the arena’s practice court without forcing players to crisscross Manhattan multiple times before tipoff.

And guess what, Alabama native Gerald Wallace says "I’m afraid of the city... Hopefully, I can find a driver to take me back and forth.”

So much for arena slogan of "Eleven Trains. One Destination."

Though, to be fair, it's unlikely that any other Nets player will take the train; most will just drive themselves.

Striving for twee

In an effort at twee, the Times presented two suggestions, one completely fanciful, in the photos/captions at left.

The players "could perhaps shop for groceries at the Park Slope Food Co-op" only if they were members of said co-op, and that requires a famously monthly work shift requirement.

The article's kind of dumb. For example, a $10.7 million house is described as " less-than-chic enclave of Gravesend,' but is also "close to Brighton Beach."The reason it's so expensive is not to lure millionaire hoopsters but to attract Sephardic Jewish families that want to live in a tight-knit neighborhood.

The Times reports:

As for Nets players who want to rent, not buy, a possibility is the 17-story high-rise at 163 Washington Ave., which hulks like a basketball player among civilians in its low-slung Clinton Hill neighborhood. Its two-bedroom penthouse, with 1,260 sunny square feet, features clear East River views and trendy stainless-steel fixtures.